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ArchivesRe: Can there be two forms of a name in the same language?
in reply to a message by I like old names
Well, there's always Jane, Jean and Joan! And Peter and Piers. Mostly, the different spellings reflect dialectal variations.
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Unlike most words, names have no standardised form. Historically even one person's name will have been recorded in several different forms, in their lifetime. In some cases we can identify some as mistakes, but others are simply different scribal conventions, and standard abbreviations.
This message was edited 8/2/2021, 9:00 PM
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Quite so! I've found one and the same 19th-century British relative "named" Diana, Diane, Dina and Dinah in official records, mostly censuses. Surviving relations who knew her or people close to her have assured me that she was always actually Dinah.
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